The Cold Coast

Only the Mexicans from Down South weren’t shivering yesterday morning as the mercury teetered below freezing point in the coldest temperatures on record for the Sunshine Coast.

The Bureau of Meteorology said temperatures in Maroochydore plummeted to minus 0.7 degrees – well below the previous low at the airport site which was on August 1, 1994 when the temperature dropped to 1.5 degrees.

BOM spokesman Jeff Callaghan said they since they began recording temperatures at the airport site in 1994 this was the lowest temperature ever.

No one who calls the Sunshine Coast home doubted yesterday’s temperatures were exceptional with parts of the Coast transformed into a white winter wonderland by heavy frost.

Mountain Creek High School groundsman Robert Hayman has been on the job for the past 13 years and he couldn’t believe his eyes when he arrived at work at 6am and found the sports fields laden with thick white frost.

“This is the worst frost I’ve seen,” Mr Hayman said.

“It’s browned off the oval as the frost burnt the grass.”

The hinterland was also freezing – literally – with Pomona’s Dee Wealands discovering the water in her birdbath had turned to ice.

“ I was washing the car in my shorts this morning and the postman said ‘Geez aren’t you cold’ but he has no idea, this is lovely,” he said.

Gill and Kevin McCrea from Christchurch have left minus six degree tempretures to bask in Mooloolaba’s warmth. But even they admitted it was “a bit nippy in the morning”.

Diddillibah’s Julian Wagner said it wasn’t nippy “it’s absolutely freezing cold”. “There was a white frost all over the farm this morning. My family’s been there 24 years and we’ve not seen anything like this.’’

Temperatures have dropped below zero on the Sunshine Coast, records showing Tewantin at minus 2.8 on June 20, 1901.

BOM’s Clair Webb said the weather should warm up – albeit marginally – on Sunday with the possibility of some coastal showers.